Nothing was going my way yesterday. It rained, and the Williamsburg Waterfront show featuring Dan Deacon’s band Round Robin was moved to Brooklyn Bowl. I got there a bit past six and was greeted with a line around the block. I did not have a press pass for the show, so I waited in line, only to find out the venue was at capacity. We were then told there was going to be a second show and that everyone in line would be given wristbands. After waiting for over two hours, we were told that the second show was also full.

While panicking about how to keep my 38 day long streak of free shows going, I remembered that Pete’s Candy store usually has music on Sunday nights. I got to Pete’s just as Mama Bear was packing up and didn’t get to hear any of their set. Matt Jaffe performed next. Matt Jaffe is a fourteen year old singer songwriter from California. It would be illegal for Jaffe to patronize the bar he was performing in, and his fresh faced prescence on stage shocked the audience. “He looks like he is ten years old,” a man in his fifties sitting near me confided in his wife. While most guitarists his age are still struggling with bar chords, Jaffe is touring America and performing his own folksy originals. Last night Jaffe performed a solo set accompanied only by his acoustic guitar to a small crowd in Pete’s intimate concert space. The minimal accompaniement forced me to fixate on Jaffe’s lyrics which are impressively written for a young teen but not quite at the level of an adult writer. Jaffe has a pristine tenor voice which will no doubt lower considerably in the next few years. Overall I was impressed. Naturally, Jaffe’s music still needs work-- that is exactly what he is doing on it.